The moment that the formation around the capital of the Iron Sky kingdom activated, everyone inside the capital instantly realized something was wrong. Even the ones who had yet to hear about the giant demonic rat from the miners close to the capital that managed to run inside before the formation began closing off the capital from the rest of the world realized that something big was happening close to the capital.
After all, there was no way the formation would have been activated and used to seal off the capital if there wasn't something dangerous happening nearby that might affect the capital.
"What is that? Did someone perhaps attack the capital?"
At the same time that the giant barrier appeared to surround the capital, both the spectators and participants at the alchemy competition all looked up towards the barrier that had suddenly appeared all of a sudden with both nervous and curious expressions showing.
"Hm? Did those people perhaps decide to attack now?"
Having just come back after the effect of Qing Yi's potion disappeared, Fang Shi looked up towards the barrier. Not the least bit of worry showing on his face as he saw the large barrier above. Clearly showing how confident he was in Yi Min and her ability to resolve the trouble that she found herself in.
"For them to attack now… It looks like Yi Min will have quite an easy time dealing with those people. Especially if she has the help of the Domain Lord from the Flying Sword Sect…" Smiling to himself as he muttered this, Fang Shi decided to proceed with the alchemy competition without worrying about what was happening outside.
If Yi Min truly encountered some sort of dangerous situation that she couldn't deal with, Fang Shi was sure that she would contact him. After all, he still had a few things he could help out with as an Artisan Alchemist. Even keeping himself safe in the face of a normal Domain Lord was not too hard for him…
"Ahm! There is nothing to worry about. Don't forget who is in charge of this place! We will now proceed with the third stage of the alchemy competition. The people moving on to the third stage, is-"
Turning to look over the fearful participants, Fang Shi quickly got their attention before calming them down and beginning to name the participants who had moved onto the third stage of the alchemy competition.
Hearing Fang Shi's reassuring words, the participants quickly calmed down and listened to him announce the names of the participants who managed to move on to the third stage of the alchemy competition.
The main reason why they managed to calm down so quickly with just a few words from Fang Shi, was the fact that the Iron Sky Kingdom was quite well known for the strength of their ruler, Yi Min, who was widely known to be among the 10 strongest people below the Soul Ascension Realm in the entire Sky Empire!
With someone like that around, who would be able to attack the Iron Sky Kingdom? Even if there was someone like that, they would at the very least have to be in the Soul Ascension Realm and if a person at that realm attack, they would likely not even have enough time to react before the entire kingdom disappeared…
"-And lastly, Qing Yi, from the Flying Sword Sect!"
Listening to the names of the people moving onto the third stage of the alchemy competition, Qing Yi had felt that her chances were close to none after she had… 'transformed' Fang Shi, but in the end, she had still somehow managed to move onto the third stage of the alchemy competition!
Not only that, but the young girl next to her had also managed to move onto the next stage of the alchemy competition.
Even though she still had not gotten to ask the young girl's name yet, Qing Yi still managed to get along with her during the short period of time that they had interacted with each other.
Through their short interaction, Qing Yi also finally learned about the rewards for the alchemy competition!
Yes… Even at this point in time, Qing Yi did still not have any clue what the rewards for the alchemy competition was! All she knew about the rewards was told through the Alchemy Hall elders, who only told her how good the rewards for the alchemy competition were.
Finding out about the rewards of the alchemy competition was more than enough to make Qing Yi do her best as the sheer number of spiritual herbs that she could win from getting the first place would be more than enough for her to use over the next few years.
Even better, most of the spiritual herbs that she could win through the competition were suitable for someone in the Expert Alchemist Realm!
The rewards in the alchemy competition were tailored to help the participant have all the resources they needed available for them to improve. Not to mention quite a few recipes were included in the rewards that all used the spiritual herbs that were rewarded to the participants!
For example, just her making it to the top twenty would give her more than five unique recipes, twenty Spirit Grade Spiritual Herbs and fifty Earth Grade Spiritual Herbs!
Thinking about it, everyone except the people eliminated in the first stage of the alchemy competition would be rewarded with a lot of good things.
Because of this, the participants who failed to move on to the third stage of the alchemy competition were not as sad as the ones who failed during the first stage of the alchemy competition.
"Now let's get started! Among all of you, only one person will remain at the end of the third stage!"
Standing on top of the platform at the centre of the competition space, Fang Shi suddenly called out once again as everyone except the twenty who made it on to the third stage had left the competition area.
Not only that, but he also directly announced that the third stage would be the last part of the alchemy competition!
…
"Should we just continue watching…?"
At the same time that the third stage of the alchemy competition was beginning, Xuan Hao smiled wryly as he looked over towards Yi Min and asked this.
"Haha, of course! General Guan is so kind as to take care of the demonic rat outside for us! How could we interfere with his work?"
Chuckling a bit at Xuan Hao's question, a barely visible evil smile could be seen on Yi Min's face as she looked over towards the fight taking place just on the other side of the barrier.
Whoosh!
Just at this time, General Guan was hit by the tail of the giant demonic rat and was sent flying over towards them with a terrifying momentum-
Bang!
"Ah~"
Directly crashing into the barrier in front of them, General Guan let out a low groan filled with pain before glaring over towards Yi Min filled with anger. Rushing away from the barrier as he once again clashed with the giant demonic rat.
Xuan Hao might not have noticed anything happening when he crashed into the barrier, but General Guan knew very well that Yi Min had just barely changed the area of the barrier he hit to be filled with countless small spikes barely visible to the naked eye.
Earlier when he crashed into the barrier, General Guan had very clearly felt his body being pierced by these small spikes, as they rapidly drained away both his qi and vitality!
In just a short instant, he felt like he had lost close to five percent of his strength!
Yi Min's formation was simply way too powerful!
At this moment, General Guan first-hand experienced just how terrifying the formation surrounding the capital of the Iron Sky Kingdom was! He also understood why no one had dared to attack Yi Min over the years…
Attacking her when she had the formation backing her up, was simply impossible unless it was someone above the Domain Lord Realm!
Just a little more and we will have a chance…!
Thinking about something, General Guan narrowed his eyes as he looked over in the direction of Yi Min before launching yet another wave of attacks with his halberd down towards the giant demonic rat.
Roar!
Roaring angrily upon seeing yet another wave of attacks heading towards it, the demonic rat directly ignored the attacks as it charged over towards General Guan.
Ching~𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦
Ching~
Bang!
Blocking all the attacks directly with its body as it soon appeared directly in front of General Guan before it opened its large mouth and bit down, wanting to swallow him whole!
"Ha?"
Not expecting for this to happen, General Guan looked shocked for a short moment before trying to dodge the large gaping maw of the demonic rat.
Chomp~
Sadly, he reacted way too late and, in the end, could not dodge in time…